How CERI International organized a vast amount of data and regained control over reporting.
In the financial sector, data is not just an asset—it is an obligation. Every inconsistency in reporting, every delay in accessing information, every discrepancy between file versions is a potential problem: audit-related, regulatory, operational. Regulators do not accept the explanation that “someone was working on an old version of the spreadsheet.”
Yet this is exactly what daily life looks like for many financial organizations. The larger the company, the more departments, the more dispersed the teams—the harder it is to maintain a single source of truth. Excel, a tool created for calculations, becomes a de facto reporting system, database, and workflow tool all in one. With predictable consequences.
CERI International: Scale That Demands Order
CERI International is a Łódź-based business services center belonging to the Commerzbank Group. Over a thousand employees handle back-office processes for banks and financial institutions: document digitization, data management, foreign trade transaction support. The company operates under ISO 27001, ISO 9001, and ISO 22301 certifications—in this environment, compliance is a condition of existence, not a competitive advantage.
At this scale and with these requirements, dispersed data sources quickly become a ticking time bomb.
Anatomy of the Problem
The situation CERI faced before implementation was not unique—it is a scenario most CFOs in large organizations will recognize. It starts innocently: one team creates a spreadsheet for its own needs, another makes a copy and modifies it, a third receives a version by email and works on it in parallel. After a few years, the company has dozens of “sources of truth,” none of which is fully reliable.
Aleksandra Wąsik, CFO of CERI, diagnoses the pre-implementation situation without embellishment:
- Fragmentation. Data flowed in from many departments in Excel spreadsheets—many teams had their own files, their own structures, their own naming conventions.
- Multiple versions. The same information existed in several copies, often mutually contradictory. Determining which version was current required detective work.
- Delays. February data was only available in reports in March. For an organization handling financial processes, this is not an inconvenience—it is structural risk.
The result? The finance team spent time constantly organizing instead of analyzing. Decisions were based on data that might already be outdated by the time they were made.
Solution: One System, One Source of Truth
Hogart Business Intelligence implemented the Qlik analytics platform in an on-premise model—a choice dictated by security and data confidentiality requirements that are non-negotiable in the banking environment. The system included precise access control: each employee sees exactly what they are authorized to see, at the appropriate level of detail.
The implementation partner’s approach was key. As Aleksandra Wąsik says: “The consultant from Hogart Business Intelligence had the right expertise; there was no <it can’t be done>—they looked for a solution to the specific need.”
Scale and Dynamics of Implementation:
The project launched ambitiously, ultimately covering all departments in the company. Currently, about 40 key users work with the system—mainly team leaders and managers for whom quick access to data is the foundation of daily management. The first phase of collaboration with Hogart Business Intelligence, focused on building foundations and key reports, lasted about 6 months. However, the process did not end there. CERI International adopted an evolutionary model—after launch, the system is developed using internal resources. This is a process of continuous improvement and adaptation of analytics to the changing business environment.
Integration at the Source:
To eliminate manual data entry, Qlik was integrated directly with the company’s key systems:
- Financial and accounting system (providing solid data on the company’s financial health).
- Time tracking system (enabling precise analysis of operational efficiency).
Results: From Scattered Information to Control
The change did not happen overnight, but its effects were felt almost immediately after the system went live. For CERI’s finance team, the most tangible difference turned out to be speed—what previously required weeks of consolidation now happens in real time. However, speed is only the surface. Underneath is something more important: trust in the data.
Hard Success Metrics:
The implementation delivered concrete savings that can be converted to FTE:
- Controlling Department: Reduction in reporting time saved 0.5 FTE (half a full-time position), freeing specialists from the tedious work of “stitching together” tables.
- Operational Units: Time savings needed for data collection and preparation are estimated at 1 FTE across the entire company.
Broad Analytical Scope:
Together with Hogart, key efficiency reports and FTE resource reporting were developed. By developing the system independently, CERI added additional analytical layers:
- Productivity reports and non-operational time utilization.
- Detailed financial results broken down by departments and teams.
- Advanced financial KPIs.
Finance Department Perspective
“Today we work faster, more efficiently, and avoid errors. The implementation allowed us to organize internal processes, identify and eliminate bottlenecks. Ultimately, this was an investment that paid off.” – Aleksandra Wąsik, CFO, CERI International
Conclusions
The CERI International case demonstrates a pattern that repeats itself in many financial sector organizations: the problem rarely stems from a lack of data—it stems from its dispersion. Companies are drowning in spreadsheets that were meant to be temporary solutions but became permanent infrastructure.
Implementing an analytics platform is not about replacing one tool with another. It is a decision about whether the organization wants to continue managing file versions or start managing information. CERI chose the latter—and Hogart helped translate that decision into a working system tailored to the realities of the banking environment and security requirements.
Today CERI has one system instead of dozens of spreadsheets, real-time data instead of month-old information, and a finance team that analyzes instead of consolidates. Does this help anyone? The numbers speak for themselves: 1.5 FTE recovered and peace of mind in reporting are arguments that are hard to dispute.